A busy weekend in Maberga...

It seems that I haven’t posted to my blog is so long. I’m sure you all were just out of your mind, waiting and checking each day for a new post. Well, since my last post I have been oh so very busy. Here are just a few things I’ve been up to:

1. I attended the first evening celebration of a pig slaughter. I’m sorry I have no pictures to share. It was quite a spectacle. About 10 of us crammed into the country kitchen of Lisa and Franco eating (eating pig, of course, served with cabbage) and drinking and singing some song about sausages. For those of you not familiar with the pig slaughter tradition, it is very elaborate and a lot of freakin’ work. From the first squeal to the finished soprasatt and sausages hanging in the cantina is about 3 days. It’s pig slaughter season so I’m sure I will have more on this topic in weeks to come, along with some beautiful pictures.

2. I caught a cold. A cold that is just bad enough to slow me down and piss me off but not bad enough to keep me in bed.


3. I finished these…














Sorry, I can’t spread them out to show them in all their glory because they are gifts for some people who may or may not be reading this blog.


4. I started this (ok, I didn’t just start this, I’ve become obsessed with this)…

(note to my dear, non-knitting sister who thought one of the other beautiful projects highlighted here on the blog was a pair of underwear: It’s a shawl.)

5. I ate pasta piena – that means “full pasta” and boy was it ever and boy was I ever after I ate it. Imagine a moment… penne pasta noodles in a large casserole dish with slices of egg, cheese, sausage, and meatballs, baked. Whoa. Sorry, no pictures of this either. Maybe next time.

6. I baked some incredibly dry peanut butter blossom cookies. Does anyone have a substitution suggestion for brown sugar, which is not sold anywhere in this country but is involved in every recipe that I have? The folks that I delivered these peanut flavored, molded saw dust to were very kind about them. They tried them, complimented me, blah blah blah as they always do to try to encourage the “kitchen challenged” American. Actually, the recipients were much happier about the plate that the cookies came on … hand painted by David and me. “Everyone has their own talents,” as they say to me always here…do you think they are trying to tell me to stick to my other talents and stay the hell out of the kitchen?

7. And, last, but not least…I discovered a post-christmas sale on wine at the grocery store. 1 euro a bottle! Yippee.
David went back down this morning to stock up.

Now I’m going back to my shawl…and the couch that I actually spent 90% of the time on since I last wrote.